


The Days We Remember

by AudibleEllipsis



Category: Skullgirls (Video Game)
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Crushes, F/F, Nothing's too bad when you're not alone, They're making the most of it out there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27546271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AudibleEllipsis/pseuds/AudibleEllipsis
Summary: In Hildgard's orphanage, at exactly six PM every Thursday night, the most important thing in the world happened. A new episode of Annie: Dream Blazer of the Stars premiered. [...] Patricia had literally bled, sweat, but not cried, for undeniable dibs on the best seat in the house. Which was why the other girl currently taking it up had tomove.A birthday one-shot for Patricia about magical girls, meeting Marie, and becoming friends.
Relationships: Marie Korbel/Peacock
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	The Days We Remember

In Hildgard’s orphanage, at exactly six PM every Thursday night, the most important thing in the world happened. A new episode of Annie: Dream Blazer of the Stars premiered. Every episode was just as exciting as the last, and it only got better with every season. The image they got all the way out in No-Man’s Land was always sort of staticky, but somehow the audio was perfect. Patricia could hear every breath, every note of the opening, every call for Star Power Annie ever made.

It was like magic.

She’d fought two older kids for the rights to the room with the small TV (one in a game of hide and seek that lasted three days, and the other with plain-ole fisticuffs). Sure, there was a second, bigger TV downstairs, but that one got shared all the time, and this one was practically _hers_ once it got late enough. Patricia had literally bled, sweat, but not cried, for undeniable dibs on the best seat in the house.

Which was why the other girl currently taking it up had to _move_.

“Hey, scram.” Patricia put both hands on her hips, staring the would-be maid down. The girl’s distant little smile came around to a frown.

“Pardon me?”

“Move, you’re in my spot.”

The other girl’s pale blue eyes widened some. “Your spot?”

“Yeah, _my spot._ ” Patricia gestured. “TV straight ahead, not too many springs in the cushion, and an arm for leanin’ on. It’s like, the perfect place for watchin’ some toons.” She smirked, jerking a thumb towards herself. “ _And_ I beat Jacks and Cici for it, so it’s mine.”

“Oh…” The girl looked away, then schooched over. “Sorry. I was just cleaning, that’s all.”

Patricia hesitated before waving a dismissive hand, focusing on the TV to adjust the dials and wire. “Eh, forget about it. Ya didn’t know. You’re uh… Marie, right?” The girl had come in a few days ago and found a maid uniform hanging somewhere to dress up in - sleeves and skirt rolled back to make it fit. Some of the other kids were already listening to her because of the way she talked, and Marie even seemed to actually like a lot of the cleaning they basically never bothered with. It was probably a good thing.

Patricia had jacked some of the old owners’ clothes too, overalls with patches on the knees (all rolled up, the patches fell to her shins) and a white longsleeve with a popped collar. What little of her short red hair fell away was tucked into the back.

“Marie Korbel.” The girl answered with a sad sorta smile. Last names didn’t mean much around here, but some folks chose to hang onto ‘em anyways.

“Patricia. I saw you playin’ piano last night, yeah? It was nice!” Patricia said, coming back to her spot. One of the older teens tried to play it sometimes, but it’d never sounded that good. The sofa was a two-seater for adults, but Marie had barely moved away from the one side. Patty didn’t really mind since more people would probably be comin’ around soon anyways. “You teach y’self?”

“Um. N-no, my dad did.” Marie squeezed on the fabric of her dress a little, then turned back with that same smile. “That show you like is going to be coming on soon, right? It’s all I’ve really heard you talking about.”

Patricia slammed a fist into a palm and leaned forward, startling Marie. “That’s ‘cause it’s the best show _ever!_ ” She carried on, speaking over commercials for things they’d never have. “It’s like-- okay, so-- it’s about this girl named Annie who’s got this sword made from a meteorite, and it can cut through _anything_. She came from _super_ far away with her bunny Parasite named Sagan, and they fight all sorts of creeps just for us!”

“Far away, like… outside of the kingdom?” Marie folded her hands.

“From outer SPACE!” Patricia jumped out of her seat to shout the word, badly singing a line from the opening. “She’s Annie, Girl of the Stars! No fight that she can’t win, and nowhere she hasn’t been!” Marie’s smile had gone soft, looking amused but unconvinced. Patricia just waved a hand before sinking back into place, wrapping an arm around the other girl’s shoulder and pulling her closer. “Eh, you’ll see. She’s gonna be fightin’ another Skullgirl tonight, so it’s gonna be a _real_ good one.”

“I hope so.” Marie agreed, brown pigtails swaying just so, and with that, the opening began to play out.

It was weird that no one else had shown up, but Patricia didn’t make Marie move over, and Marie didn’t try to get away. The would-be maid leaned forward in her seat almost right after the opening, pulled in as soon as the new Skullgirl started making a speech deep in the dark of a big cave. Annie rode a minecart down an abandoned shaft to give chase -- being chased by cave-ins and all sorts of undead herself -- scraping away at the last second several times over only to reach a point where the tracks fell away into the abyss.

In a move that made Marie gasp, the Girl of the Stars leapt out, turning on the jet part of her sword and flying over the gap and running down the rest of the track. When Patricia looked over with a full-toothed grin, Marie just looked embarrassed, like she wasn’t supposed to have been so excited. It was an ashamed sort of look she’d seen on a couple kids before, and they always got over it after hanging around for long enough.

The climax came soon after when Annie reached her foe, an explosion bringing the Girl of the Stars to her knees.

 ** _“There is no moon here, child.”_** It condescended. **_“No stars to save you, no audience to hear you.”_**

Annie struggled to her feet. **_“You’re wrong! Even if you can’t see them, the stars are there! Just like I know everyone cheering for me is still out there! You lured me to this place with the hope that I’d be cut off, but the truth is…”_** She pushed a button on her sword and her silhouette was overtaken by an aura of colors backed by galaxies. “ _ **The truth is that nothing can defeat a star! And I’ll always be prepared to take menaces like you down. STAR POWER!! GALACTIC CUTTER!!!”**_

With the transformation complete, Annie’s costume had become infinitely frillier and absolutely 0% less cool in Patricia’s eyes. The Girl of the Stars was completely healed, and sent a slash from her blade across the way, a beam of rainbow color that obliterated the Skullgirl to pieces. And then the _pieces_ blew up.

“Yes!” Marie cheered, pumping a fist at the same time Patricia hollered. The credits started playing while Annie looked directly into the camera, repeating the same spiel she did every time.

 _ **“Remember, anyone can be like me. All you have to do is always fight against evil and never stop believing in yourself! Until next time!”**_ The girl put her index and middle finger up in a V for victory, joined by Sagan hopping into frame. Whatever came on after that basically didn’t matter, so Patricia turned to her side, too surprised by Marie’s serious face to ask the question she’d meant to.

“Somethin’ wrong?”

Marie fiddled with a pigtail. “Do you… really think I could be like Annie? I’m not very brave.”

“Huh? ‘Course you can!” Patricia stood up, extending a hand. “If Annie says you can do it, then you can. Simple as that!”

Marie took the hand, stumbling as she was hoisted to her feet, that sad sort of smile coming back. “Ha… if you say so.”

“I _do_ say so!” She clapped the other girl on the back.

Marie’s pale blue eyes got a little brighter, and she was having difficulties getting rid of the more genuine smile that had grown. “... Thanks.”

For a short while, Marie seemed content to just stand there, staring. Patricia let her, looking back and not quite listening to the voices coming from the TV. “Sooo… you wanna play somethin’?”

“Hm?” The other girl blinked, “Ah.” Then looked away, moving to one side where the vacuum cleaner she’d repaired after arriving sat. “I don’t think so. I never finished cleaning this room, so I should do that now.”

“Aww, for real? What if I helped you clean after we play?” Patricia threw her arms out, not quite stopping her from walking away. “We could play Annie, like on the show! I’ll even let you be Annie, if you want.”

“You’d help me clean?” Marie seemed surprised.

Patricia shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

“Well… okay. But I think you should be Annie. I’ll be the Skullgirl.”

“Uh, you sure?” Basically no one ever wanted to actually play as the Skullgirl. There were plenty of reasons not to even want to _pretend_ to be one. “You could just be like, some other villain you come up with. I know all of ‘em from the show, if you wanna be somethin’ else.”

She shook her head. “No, I think I want to be the big villain. It’s a bit easier when you’re supposed to lose.”

“Uh, if you say so.” Patricia shrugged, looking around for the long tube of green glittery wrapping paper she’d pulled from some closet forever ago. It was all dented in spots and ripped through in a couple places, but the rubber band keeping it closed was still intact. She found it tucked away behind a dresser. “Check it out! This is my special weapon.”

“Ah, then…” Marie smoothly detached the hose from the vacuum, leaving a long, pronged piece of plastic in her hands. “Then this is my spear.”

Patricia cheered, and set up the scenario, weaving a story with as much dramatic tension as she could manage. It was late at night, and Marie had been terrorizing the city all day. Her wish hadn’t been for herself, but it was too late to go back, and there was only one way out. No such thing as a good Skullgirl, after all. ‘Annie’ had defeated several of the Skullgirls’ lieutenants, and now there was only the big bad herself.

“Your reign of terror ends here!” Patricia called out. “I’ve come to stop you!”

“So you claim,” Marie said with narrowed eyes, looking actually kinda intimidating. She held the ‘spear’ out more like a sword, but who cared? “But if you had so much trouble with my servants, what makes you think you’ll ever be able to defeat me?”

“Oh please. I was just getting warmed up with them,” Patricia grinned, undoing the rubber band. “You’ll stand no chance once I transform!” And she thumbed the thing open, rolling out from the inside while twirling to let the paper fall around her.

From her point of view it was just a bunch of patterned white, but from the outside she knew it looked like green stars had hidden her away. Patricia squawked halfway through a second rotation when a pillow was tossed hard enough to knock her over. She fell with a thud, poking her head out of the top. “Hey! You can’t attack during a transformation! Villains can’t do that!”

“I’m a Skullgirl,” Marie smiled, twirling her ‘spear’. “I don’t have to play by the rules.”

Patricia laughed. So she _did_ know how to have fun. The girl squirmed out of the paper, managing not to rip it any more and put it together again. “Alright, alright. But if I’ve gotta take you on like this, then you better get ready for a knockout-dragout fight!”

“Very well. Approach me, if you dare.”

For the first while Marie had been too afraid to hop around on the furniture, and kept holding back on her swings. Patricia would respond by poking her every time, getting giggles in response until Marie remembered she was supposed to be a serious villain. Before long they were competing a little more evenly though, and Marie undid the long ribbon tied around her waist, ducking beneath a slow swing and pulling it around Patricia’s legs, sending her to the ground with another squawk.

Then she just… _laughed_. It was like a dozen bells all ringing at once, high and loud. The would-be maid had found something unrecoverably funny about it all, and couldn’t stop.

“The perfect distraction.” Patricia grinned, giving warning. She got up suddenly and Marie just blinked, trying to put her ‘spear’ in the other girl’s way only for Patricia to twirl it away using the tube of paper and step in closer. The redhead tackled her to the ground and when Marie tried to squirm away, she just grabbed the weaker girl’s arms by the wrists and slammed them to the carpet high above her head, seated firmly on her hips. “Gotcha!”

And it was _Patricia’s_ turn to laugh, snorting, short hair falling forward. She’d expected Marie to join in, but realized after a little bit that she wasn’t. Patricia blinked, and noticed the other girl was just staring, cheeks red. It wasn’t that embarrassing to lose, was it? It’s why she’d picked the role, right?

The redhead got up with what she hoped was a reassuring grin and dusted her hands. “Another win for Annie, just like it should be.” She offered Marie a hand again. “And don’t worry. If a Skullgirl ever came after us, I’d beat ‘em just like that too.”

“I’m sure you would.” Marie managed, and took the hand.

Cleaning went smoothly after that, except for when Marie would jump a little if Patricia ever pulled on her to come look at something before asking a question. It was a bit weird, but she was less jumpy after that day, so whatever it was probably wasn’t all that important.

Patricia usually didn’t bother with reruns, trying to find something new to watch on another channel, but since Marie had gotten into Annie too, she made sure to grab the other girl whenever one was on.

It was on one of those days, a few months later, when Marie showed up excited, hiding something behind her back.

“You’ll never guess what I got from Mr. Hasan’s caravan today!”

She’d made a thing of cleaning or fixing little machines that the traveling trader brought along in return for something that was mostly useless, but out here anything ‘mostly useless’ was usually ‘really cool, actually’.

“Another record?” Patricia wondered. They had a few left from the last owners and a working player, but some of them were sorta scratched up. So far Marie’s collection included a dog whistle, a bag of marbles, a magnifying glass, and a pocket watch that had stayed broken no matter how much she worked on it.

“Way better!” Marie held it out, bouncing on her feet and pushing it into the other girl’s hands.

“No way…” It was a VHS tape of a holiday special episode of Annie they’d never seen, box and all. “Wh-- Well we’ve gotta go play it downstairs!”

“Before that, um,” Marie’s grin turned nervous. “When’s your birthday?”

“Dunno.” Patricia answered honestly. It wasn’t something most of ‘em knew for real.

“Then, can it be today?”

“Why?”

“Because…” Marie wrapped her up in a tight hug. “Because I want to thank you… for sticking with me. For helping clean, and dragging me to watch stuff, and…” She sniffed. “And I want you to have a birthday.”

“Heh,” Patricia chuckled, hugging back for a bit before holding the other girl out by the shoulders. “Alright, then it’s my birthday. Can’t think of a cooler present than this.”

“Happy birthday, Patty.”

“Happy birthday, me.”

They walked down the stairs, and watched the special over and over until they could recite the final showdown together, splitting the roles. Even with it being the first birthday she could remember having, Patricia figured it would be a hard one to top.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Peacock. Wanted to make something for one of my favorite characters on her birthday. It's a bit aimless, but I had fun, and I hope you had fun reading it. TBH if you can think of a better title, I'll probably just use it. Shaping up to do more with these two later, even if I'm not sure when that'll be out.


End file.
